Playing card hand holder



fiwept. 18, 1956 E. M. DEAL 2,763,485

PLAYING CARD HAND HOLDER Filed Aug. 5, 1953 INVENTOR. .ETHEL M. DIAL.

BY 4054 kl Q wv ATTORNEY.

United States Patent Ofiice 2,763,485 Patented Sept. 18, i955 PLAYING CARD HAND HOLDER Ethel M. Dial, Dayton, Ohio Application August 5, 1953, Serial No. 372,475 8 Claims. (Cl. 273-150) The present invention relates to playing card hand holders, i. e., to receptacles in which a group of playing cards assigned to a player participating in a game may be mounted in front of the player, on the table or other playing surface, without requiring the cards to be grasped or otherwise held by the players fingers.

A particular object of the invention is to provide a holder of the class indicated in which a relatively large number of cards be mounted, including such numerous holdings as are required in the playing of such games as canasta, samba and the like.

A related object is to support a hand of playing cards in a convenient and facile manner by which all the cards are readily arranged for simultaneous display to the player of the hand while being concealed from the other players.

Another object is to provide for mounting as above indicated and to permit ready and quick rearrangement of the cards in the holder so that all of them will be oppositely faced, i. e., will have their front or indicia-bearing faces juxtaposed or engaged with each other so that these faces will be concealed from a player in front of the holder. This feature is of particular utility when the person playing the hand which is mounted in the holder is required to leave the game temporarily before the hand is completely played.

Another object is to provide a holder which can be manufactured and sold at low cost, out of inexpensive material, and which can be used in its normal manner for holding the cards and can be disposed in cardconcealing relationship, as above indicated, readily and expeditiously, with no risk of damage to the cards and with no skill or practice required of the player.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, ferred embodiment of the invention is shown in companying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a complete preferred embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view showing a hand of cards mounted in the holder; and

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Generally speaking, the invention comprises a plurality, preferably three, telescopically related sections, each containing a plurality of tiered slots, each of which slots is adapted to hold a plurality of cards, with the indiciabearing margins of the rear tiers visible above the upper edges of the forward tiers and with the assembly extensible and contractile to vary the eflfective length of the holder so as to mount a wide range of cards, and with the sections separable so as to be rearrangeable on occasion in mutually faced relationship so as to exhibit only the backs of the cards.

Referring to the drawing, the holder comprises a pair of identical end sections, 1, 1, and a central section 2. The end sections are of open, box-like shape, each being closed at one end by an end wall 3 and having a bottom wall 4 and being open at the top and open at the end opposite the closed end wall 3. Each end section 1 is a prethe acall players, including provided with a plurality of open slots or troughs 5, formed by convo-luting the material of the section continuously with the front wall 6 and the rear wall 7, the troughs being graduated in depth to provide the tiered arrangement best shown in Fig. 3, with the troughs deeper toward the front Wall 6 and shallower toward the rear wall 7.

The center section 2 conforms generally to the shape and size of the identical end sections 1, but is open at both of its opposite ends and is sufliciently smaller to be telescoped into the open inner ends of the end sections. The center section 2 is approximately twice as long as each of the end sections.

it will be recognized that with the center section interfitted with the two end sections, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the assembly can be expanded or contracted between a minimum width equal to twice the length of each end section 1 and a maximum length equal to approximately four times the length of each end section.

With the sections assembled as shown in Fig. 1, the assembly is expanded or contracted sutficiently to accommodate the desired number of cards 8, and the cards are mounted in the troughs 5 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, being overlapped and spread laterally sufliciently to expose the indicia in their upper left hand corners.

The troughs are shaped so as to flare upwardly, or converge downwardly, so that the cards will rest against the backwardly inclined rear wall of each trough, as shown in Fig. 3. In this position all the cards are properly displayed to the player of the hand.

However, if the player is required to absent himself from the game briefly, to resume play on his return, he may rearrange the sections so as to assure himself that the cards will not be seen by any player who may take a position in front of the holder. This is readily done by separating from the central section 2 the two end sections 1, leaving the cards in place in each section, then arranging the two end sections in tandem alignment and facing them against the center section, and flipping the cards forwardly so that their front faces will lie against the front walls of the troughs. This causes the front faces of the cards to lean toward each other, so that these faces are concealed and only the back faces of the cards can be seen.

On the players return, he simply moves the two end sections, telescopes them about the end margins of the center section, and flips all the cards back against the rear walls of the troughs 5, thus restoring the holder and the cards to their original position in which the front faces of the cards are visible from the players place at the table.

The holder sections may be made of sheet metal or of any suitable plastic material which is relatively rigid and stiff in the thin or sheet form in which it is desirable to make the walls of the sections and which can be molded, die cast or otherwise fabricated by conventional methods into the required shapes. Phenolic condensation resins such as Bakelite, and the methyl methacrylate widely sold under the trademark Lucite, are typical examples of suitable plastic materials. Many others will of course readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

It is to be understood that various changes and substitutions may be made in the preferred embodiment of the invention which has been illustrated and described herein merely to explain the invention that all such modifications, to the extent that they embody the principles of the invention as defined by the broader of the appended claims, are to be deemed within the scope and purview thereof.

I claim:

1. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material telesccped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section.

2. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed ofsheet material telescoped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section and arranged in parallelism from front to rear of the sections, and the troughs being graduated in depth, with the front troughs being deeper than the rear troughs.

3. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material telescoped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section, and the length of the center section being substantially equal to the combined lengths of both end sections.

4. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material separably telescoped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section, and the length of the center section being substantially equal to the combined lengths of both end sections.

5. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material separably telescoped together and each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section and defined by sloping front and back walls converging at the trough bottoms.

6. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material separ'ably telescoped together and each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section and defined by front and back walls, each 4 b'ackwall sloping upwardly and rearwardly from intersection with a front wall at the bottom of the trough to provide a surface against which a playing card is adapted to lie.

7. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material telescoped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section and each defined by a front wall and a back wall sloping downwardly to intersection with each other at the trough bottom whereby a playing card in a trough may be inclined forwardly against the front wall or rearwardly against the back wall.

8. A playing card hand holder comprising a pair of end sections and a center section formed of sheet material separably telescoped together, each section having a plurality of open troughs aligned with the troughs of the adjacent section and each defined by a front wall and a back wall sloping downwardly to intersection with each other at the trough bottom whereby playing cards in the troughs are normally inclined rearwardly against the back walls-and whereby the sections may be separa'tedand rearranged With the end sections faced against the center section with the cards inclined against the front walls and facing each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 406,729 Harris July 9, 1889 805,895 Wedderburn Nov. 28, 1905 1,588,618 Roseri June 15, 1926 1,913,000 Ritz Woller June 6, 1933 2,394,866 McClune Feb. 12, 1946 

